High speed printer



M. PREISINGER HIGH SPEED PRINTER Oct. 29, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 20, 1960 MAX PREISINGER W2 3 X 4/70/7175 2 Oct. 29, 1963 PREISINGER HIGH SPEED PRINTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 20, l960 FIG. 3

FIG. 4

United States Patent 3,168,534 HIGH SPEED PRINTER Max Preisinger, Sindeifingeu, Baden /Vurttemherg, Germany, assignor to International Business Macaines gorporation, New York, N.Y., a corperaticn or New Filed Sept. 20, 196i), Scr. No. 57,251 Claims priority, application Germany Sept. 26, 1959 2 Claims. (Cl. 101-93) This invention relates to a printing apparatus and particularly to a high speed printing apparatus wherein the printed data. impressions are made in the form of a mosaic pattern with dots or the like.

One form of mosaic printer apparatus is the so-called Wire printer. In accordance with well-known techniques the ends of the wires are pushed against a print medium so that characters are printed which are composed of dots. By virtue of the low mass taking part in the movement higher printing speeds have been realized over conventional engraved type printers. However, Wire printers usually involve complex mechanical structures both for the selection of the wires and the making of the mosaic impressions. Furthermore, the operation of wire printers heretofore involved substantial noise which frequently proves an undesirable characteristic for commercial uti1ization.

It is therefore the principal object of this invention to provide an improved high speed mosaic printing apparatus which is structurally simple and which operates at ultrasonic levels so that human comfort is not disturbed.

It is a further object of this invention to accomplish the aforesaid object without sacrificing speed.

These and other objects are attained in accordance with the practice of this invention by providing that the impression producing members, i.e., the wires, contact the paper without impact. The dot impressions on the print medium are produced by oscillating the dot-forming impression members while in contact with the print medium at frequencies above the audible range. In a preferred embodiment the mosaic data pattern is produced on a continuously moving print medium. In this form the printing unit comprises a plurality of dot-forming elements arranged in a row which oscillate when excited at their respective inherent frequencies. In the preferred embodiment the impression forming members are magnetic material adapted to be excited magnetically, prefer ably magnetostrictively, while they are in contact with the print medium. Since magnetostrictive oscillators may be constructed which are virtually inertialess, very short effective times may be obtained, e.g., 0.5 millisecond. in addition, if the print elements are selected on the basis of inherent frequency above the audible range, a virtually noiseless printing apparatus may be obtained which is simultaneously simple in construction and inherently capable of high speed.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a printing apparatus incorporating one type of arrangement for carrying out the practice of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one form of printing unit incorporating the features of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective View of a second embodiment of the printing unit capable of printing in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a mosaic data pattern producible in accordance with the practice illustrated in the preceding figures.

Referring to the drawings a print head It) is shown in FIG. 2 which comprises a body member 11 preferably made of ferrite material taking the form of a closed magnetic circuit wherein magnetostrictively oscillatable printing elements, such as rods or wires 12, are fastened to a support 13 at their nodal point. While various materials are available which are magnetostrictively oscillatable, one suitable material is an alloy comprising 49 parts of iron, 49 parts of cesium and 2 parts of vanadium which is known under the trade name Vaooilux or Permendur. A ferrite body member gives low magnetic resistance for flux return. In order to save space, the wires 12 are bent at their nodal points and on the rear side thereof carrying exciting coils 14 which may be suitably connected in any well-known manner to suitable ultrasonic frequency generators. Through holes 15 provided at the front side of the body member '11 the wires 12 protrude out of the body member 11 when energized, whereas, in their unexcited condition they are flush with the front surface 16. Holes 17 in the rear Side of body member 11 are positioned to accommodate the remote ends of the wires 1-2, thereby forming a more efficient arrangement for providing a magnetic circuit for the oscillating magnetic flux.

The printing head 10 of FIG. 2 is shown in a printer apparatus in FIG. 1 which comprises a roller 18 which presses against the printing head 10 for obtaining a satisfactory impression on interposed print medium such as a continuous forms paper 19 and a marking medium such as carbon paper ribbon 20, respectively. The print medium 19 moves from a supply reel 21 over idler Poll 22 past the printing head 10 and over a drive roll 23 to V a container 24 in any well-known manner. In order to prevent slipping of print medium 19 on drive roll 23, a pressure roll 25 is provided between the printing head 10 and the print medium paper 19. The carbon paper 20 is drawn from supply reel 26 to a takeup reel 27. Means for causing the movement of the print medium and the marking medium may take various forms and are not shown in order to simplify the description. By driving the marking medium at a constant speed, a close seat of the print medium 19 on the printing head surface 16 is assured and ink transfer takes place when the wires 12 are oscillated. Since in a high speed printing operation, some of the wires 12 are always in the excited state, friction between the printing head surface 16 and the marking medium 20 is reduced to a minimum since such action results in a partial lifting of the marking medium from the surface 16 of body member 11.

In accordance with the present invention, printing comprises the information of alphabetical and/or numerical characters by composition of dots divisible into lines and columns similar to television thereby forming a mosaic pattern. A character may be subdivided, for example, into a 5-by-7-dot matrix so that as shown in FIG. 4, five printing elements (e.g., d1 to d5) are needed for one character. Thus the number of printing elements arranged side by side determines the number of characters that may be printed in one line, for example, the length of a line. These printing elements may be arranged so as to be mounted on a single body member 11 extending across the entire length of the print medium. However, a plurality of individual printing heads 10 of the type shown in FIG. 2 may be arranged along a print line so that multiple printing operations can also be formed simultaneously (i.e., in parallel) in plural columnar positions.

For example, an L is printed as follows as shown in FIG. 4: printing clement d1 is pressed six times in an uninterrupted sequence (corresponding to the last six lines of the ink spots) onto the printing paper moving as indicated by arrow 28. Thereafter, printing elements d1 to rid are depressed simultaneously corresponding to the first line of the ink spots. Where panallel printing is being effected, all other characters of the same line are printed at the same time as the L. If it is intended to apply the ink spots of the characters column by column, the paper 19 is not fed vertically from top to bottom, but from seft to right. In that case, the printing head must be, in the example chosen, provided with seven printing elements. If a plurality of printing heads it are provided, it is possible to print several lines simultaneously starting from the left and going to the right.

Another embodiment of the printing device is shown in FIG. 3 wherein the printing heads ill are replaced with printing elements formed as sheets representing in themselves a plurality of independently closed magnetic circuits without air gap. Lugs 39 serve to fast-ethe sheet metal lamellae and the lugs 31 correspond to the dot-forming ends of the printing elements 12 in FIG. 1 which on an energization of the coils 32 are caused to oscillate when in contact with the marking ribbon 26 of FIG. 1, for example.

Although it would be possible to apply the ink spots of all lines and columns of a character simultaneously by correspondingly arranged printing elements, it seems to be particularly advantageous to apply the ink spots line by line or column by column as the effective time of the printing elements is very short, therefore, the printing head 10 provided for the line-by-line application of the ink spots contains only one row of juxtaposed printing elements which may be individually excited magneto strictively.

The wires 12 or sheets 29 required for the printing of a given character may be energized by means of any known code converters which are interrogated in synchron-ism with the driving of the print medium. Thus th code converter, as a result of an input signal representing a character, for example L, supplies output signals for exciting the wires 12 of FIG. 2 or the printing sheets 29 of FIG. 3.

Alternatively to the illustrations shown in FIG. 1, the marking medium Zil, for example, a sheet of carbon paper, may also be guided between the record medium 19 and the roll 18. In this case, the wires 12 or-{neets 29 would have to be excited in a reflected image representation of the characters. Although with the marking media available at the present time, it is advisable to sea ichoose the speed of the marking media to be equal of that of the record medium, the arrangement may be also operated at differential speeds.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A device for printing data on a moving print medium in a visible dot pattern comprising a body member having a bearing surface for said moving print medium, said body having a plurality of apertures arranged in a row in said bearing surface, a plurality of magneto strictively excitable stylus members located within said apertures, said stylus members having dot forming end portions flush with said bearing surface when in the unexc-ited state, means mounted on said body member for supporting said stylus members at their respective nodal point, and means for magnetostuictively exciting said stylus members for causing said dot forming end portions to be extended through said apertures beyond said bearing surface into dot forming impression contact with said print medium in accordance with a predetermined data forming pattern.

2. Printing means comprising a ferrite body member presenting a bearing surface for a moving print medium,

said body member having a plurality of apertures ar- References Cited in the file of this patent UbiITED STATES PATENTS Toeppen et a1. May 21, 1957 Devol Oct. 29, 1957 Levin June 28, 1960 

1. A DEVICE FOR PRINTING DATA ON A MOVING PRINT MEDIUM IN A VISIBLE DOT PATTERN COMPRISING A BODY MEMBER HAVING A BEARING SURFACE FOR SAID MOVING PRINT MEDIUM, SAID BODY HAVING A PLURALITY OF APRETURES ARRANGED IN A ROW IN SAID BEARING SURFACE, A PLURALITY OF MAGNETOSTRICTIVELY EXCITABLE STYLUS MEMBER LOCATED WITHIN SAID APERTURES, SAID STYLUS MEMBER HAVING DOT FORMING END PORTIONS FLUSH WITH SAID BEARING SURFACE WHEN IN THE UNEXCITED STATE, MEANS MOUNTED ON SAID BODY MEMBER FOR SUPPORTING SAID STYLUS MEMBERS AT THEIR RESPECTIVE NODAL POINT, AND MEANS FOR MAGNETOSTRICTIVELY EXCITING SAID STYLUS MEMBERS FOR CAUSING SAID DOT FORMING END PORTIONS TO BE EXTENDED THROUGH SAID APERTURES BEYOND SAID BEARING SURFACE INTO DOT FORMING IMPRESSION CONTACT WITH SAID PRINT MEDIUM IN ACCORDANCE WITH A PREDETERMINED DATA FORMING PATTERN. 